“I don’t want everybody to vote. Elections are not won by a majority of
the people. They never have been from the beginning of our country and
they are not now. As a matter of fact, our leverage in the elections,
quite candidly, goes up as the voting populace goes down.”

t
wasn’t even 100 years ago when women couldn’t vote in this country. It
wasn’t even 50 years ago when black citizens were taxed and otherwise
discriminated against, just to have their vote. And today, the current
efforts underway to disenfranchise certain demographics of voters is
more proof than ever that our votes are the only thing that can upset
the oligarchy’s dominance over our country, and that those oligarchs
will do everything they can to stop us from voting. If tens of thousands
of people in Hong Kong are braving pepper spray, tear gas, batons, and mass arrests, and are even willing to take over a major highway, sleep on it overnight, and refuse to leave in the middle of a tropical downpour just for the right to have free and fair elections, then we have no excuse here to not participate in our elections.

As soon as the Supreme Court returned to work this week, the first thing they did was uphold a Republican plan to restrict early voting in Ohio,
one of the most politically significant states in presidential
elections. North Carolina Republicans are going above and beyond to make it difficult to vote.
Along with cutting early voting days, restricting voter registration
drives, and implementing strict voter ID laws, they’ve passed a law
allowing ballots to be thrown out for voters who accidentally showed up
at the wrong precinct, even if they’re voting for candidates not
specific to that precinct. Wisconsin’s voter ID law is so stringent that
an 87-year-old woman
who has participated in every previous election now has to prove to
election authorities that she isn’t an undocumented immigrant.

All of these Republican attempts to disenfranchise
voters are being justified as preventing the mythical “voter fraud.”
However, when one Loyola Law School professor investigated actual
instances of voter fraud, he discovered only 31 cases out of over 1 billion ballots cast. Isn’t it funny that Republicans don’t want to change existing gun laws despite American gun deaths being on track to outnumber traffic fatalities next year,
yet they’re doing everything they can to make it harder to vote despite
the specter of “voter fraud” proving virtually nonexistent? Republicans
know their policies are unpopular, and 72 percent
of Americans disagree with their policies.

Their strategy to win
control of the Senate, and by default, control of the entire legislative
branch of our government, is to prevent as many people as possible from
voting. This further proves that our votes matter, that having poor
people and people of color vote scares the shit out of bad politicians,
and that every vote counts.

Too many people think that by not voting, they’re
making a political statement that they have no confidence in our current
political system. But in reality, not showing up to vote is making a de
facto political statement that they accept the status quo and see no
reason to show up to change it. In contrast, by showing up to vote,
you’re making the statement that as a citizen, you’re paying attention
to what people being paid with your tax dollars to make decisions on
your behalf are doing. And if they aren’t representing your interests
with your votes, you’re exercising your right to fire them. When you
have the opportunity to cast your ballot and don’t, you’re letting
corrupt, ineffective elected officials know that things in your life are
good enough that you’ll let them keep their jobs.

A month from now, we have the opportunity to say who
should serve in 33 U.S. Senate seats. And if you’re at all upset about
the status quo of Republican filibusters of common-sense bills in the
Senate, you need to do everything in your power to stop them from
controlling that chamber. There isn’t one average American citizen
anywhere who loves a gridlocked legislative body that’s unable to
accomplish even the most basic tasks. If you care at all about ending
such unprecedented obstruction, you need to vote this November.

One major argument from non-voters is that nobody on
the ballot adequately represents their views and interests, so why
bother? But this is precisely the reason why voting in every election is
so important. By voting in summer primaries, you’re deciding who should
have the right to appear on the ballot in the fall. Those primary
candidates often get their start in local, county, and state elected
offices, and you have the power to cast a ballot in all of those
elections as well. If you don’t like either candidate on the November
ballot, ask yourself if you voted in the primary. If you don’t like any
of the candidates on the ballot in the primary, ask yourself if you
voted in the last local/county/state election cycle. If you didn’t like
any of those local candidates, then try running for one of those local
offices yourself!

Even a no-vote in a local election can cause plenty of
havoc. One great example is what’s happening in a suburb of Denver,
Colorado. Julie Williams,
an ultra-conservative member of the local school board, is forcing
curriculum onto high school students that whitewashes American history
in a way that promotes the acceptance of authority and discourages civil
disobedience. This means those students will be historically illiterate
when it comes to the civil rights movement that won black Americans the
right to be afforded the same services as whites, to the women’s
suffrage movement that won a constitutional amendment guaranteeing women
the right to vote, and to the labor rights movement that guaranteed an
8-hour work day and a five-day work week, abolished child labor, and
established basic rights like a living wage and a safe work environment.

Ironically, those students last week held a mass walkout in protest of the new curriculum, and this week, their teachers joined them
by calling in sick to join the protesting students. If enough of those
students and teachers vote in the next school board election, they can
oust Julie Williams and put in someone who promises not to force
ideology down the throats of impressionable young students. Direct
action is necessary, but without the vote, the protests are ineffective.

For another consequence of not voting, look to Ferguson, Missouri.
Fifty of the city’s 53 police officers are white, and 5 of the 6
Ferguson city council members are white, despite Ferguson’s being 70 percent black.
The mayor of Ferguson is a white Republican. All Ferguson’s black
community has to do is vote out the current crop of elected officials,
who are doing a poor job of representing them. Sadly, only 6 percent of
the black community bothered to show up in Ferguson’s last municipal
elections.

To be fair, Ferguson purposefully holds their city elections in April of odd-numbered years,
hence the low turnout. But this could be fixed by a campaign to get the
next secretary of state for Missouri to force Ferguson to hold their
elections in November of even-numbered years, when voters are likely to
show up.

My anarchist friends love to quote Emma Goldman, who
said, “If voting changed anything, it would be illegal.” But those
people forget that historically, allowing people to vote was considered
ill-informed and dangerous. Some political leaders asserted they had
authority to rule due to the circumstances of their birth, or by divine
right. The founding fathers only allowed white, land-owning men to have the right to vote. Voting was technically illegal for black citizens until after the Civil War, and it was still almost impossible for black Americans to vote until 1965. Women weren’t allowed to vote until 1920. 18-year-olds didn’t have the right to vote until 1971.
All throughout time, people have fought for the right to choose their
leaders. We have to respect those efforts by showing up in November.

If gerrymandered Congressional districts keep you from
voting, keep in mind that gerrymandering doesn’t affect statewide
elections for governors and U.S. Senate seats. This year, citizens in 36 states
will have the opportunity to vote for governor. And whoever is in the
governor’s mansion in 2020 will get to sign off on new congressional
districts drawn up after the next census. If you want to stop
gerrymandering, it’s your duty to pick the best candidates for state
house, state senate, and governor.

I’m all for having a political revolution in this
country, and agree that many Democrats and Republicans are equally
corrupt. But in this particular election, one of those parties is
actively working overtime to make sure blacks, students, the elderly,
and poor people don’t get to vote. That same party is working just as
hard to stall any meaningful legislative progress, no matter how
widely-supported, as long as a black man is in the White House. By not
voting, you’re voicing your silent opinion that what they’re doing is
acceptable, and simultaneously doubling the votes of their supporters.

I agree with my anarchist friends that the best way to
achieve meaningful progress is through a diversity of tactics. And the
vote is just as important a tactic as protesting, blocking streets,
occupying foreclosed homes, developing cooperative workplaces, and
growing organic food. When more of us show up to vote, the oligarchs
gradually lose their influence, and we make gradual progress. Democracy
is not a spectator sport. So if you want to win, get your ass out of the
bleachers and participate.

Carl Gibson, 27, is co-founder of US Uncut, a
nonviolent grassroots movement that mobilized thousands to protest
corporate tax dodging and budget cuts in the months leading up to Occupy
Wall Street. Carl and other US Uncut activists are featured in the
documentary We're Not Broke, which premiered at the 2012 Sundance Film
Festival. Carl is also the author of How to Oust a Congressman, an
instructional manual on getting rid of corrupt members of Congress and
state legislatures based on his experience in the 2012 elections in New
Hampshire. He lives in Sacramento, California.

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